Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Thomas Patrick Bourke was born in June 1892 at Wickliffe, a small town near Hamilton in Western Victoria. He was the third child to John Patrick Bourke from Bunniyon (near Ballarat) and Margaretha Geniva Ruter, from Poverty Gully (near Castlemaine in central Victoria). Thomas’s father was a mounted police constable posted to Wickliffe in 1886.

With both parents’ dead, young Thomas (aged 22) wasted no time in enlisting just two weeks after war was declared on August 4, 1914. Thomas made the long journey (140 miles) from Wickliffe to Melbourne and enlisted on August 19 at Market street, Albert Park. His enlistment record puts his calling (occupation) as a ‘Driver’ and he was enlisted into the Second Field Artillery Brigade in the Sixth Battalion as a ‘Gunner’. The 6th Battalion were later to be known as the Victorian Battalion. His medical examination and initial training were conducted at Victoria Barracks on St Kilda Road, Melbourne.

Two months after enlisting, Thomas embarked on October 20, 1914 with the Second Field Artillery Brigade on-board the HMAT A9 Shropshire from Princess Pier, Port Melbourne. The HMAT Shropshire joined the combined AIF and New Zealand  fleet of 38 troopships and escorts, carrying 30,000 soldiers and 7,500 horses, which departed Albany, Western Australia on 1 November,1914.

Originally this first convoy was to sail directly to London and the troops were to encamp on the Salisbury Plain in Southern England. However, because of the poor weather conditions it was decided to send the troops to Egypt. The HMAT Shropshire along with the rest of the convoy eventually arrived safely in Egypt and berthed in Alexandria on December 2. (Four weeks after leaving Albany).

AIF Battalions set up camp at the Mena Camp ten miles west of Cairo and the river Nile looking towards the great pyramids of Giza. For over 4 months, they drilled six days a week – marching through the sand, digging and attacking trenches and it was here that they were formed into the ANZAC Corps, with the New Zealand forces. Major-General William Birdwood, a 49-year old British officer was given command of the corps.

Thomas Bourke’s 6th Battalion were part of the second wave to come ashore at Beach Z, known as Ari Burnu at the time and later known as Anzac Cove (1985).

Australian War Memorial records indicate the 2nd Artillery Brigade landing from 05:30; and with the 5th, 6th and 8th Battalions were supposed to cross the 400 Plateau and head to Hill 971. Turkish machine guns, mountainous terrain and poor maps and instructions from ‘on high’, meant a terrible toll was taken by all ANZAC brigades on that first day. The 2nd Field Artillery Brigade suffered 231 dead and 1036 wounded or sick at the Gallipoli campaign, the highest rate of any Australian Field Artillery Brigade.

Ten days after the landing, the 2nd Artillery Brigade was transferred south from ANZAC to Cape Helles to help in the attack on the village of Krithia. The attack captured little ground but cost the brigade almost a third of its strength. The Victorian battalions returned to ANZAC Cove to help defend the beachhead, and in August the 2nd Brigade fought at the battle of Lone Pine.          

Thomas Bourke was to spend approximately 81 days on the Gallipoli peninsula. He was evacuated from Anzac Cove some days before July 20 by hospital ship, the ‘Gloucester Castle’ to Malta. Medical records indicate he is first diagnosed with ‘Diabetes’ listed as a Tubercular disease on July 15. The record states he has lost 2 stone in weight and constantly thirsty & throbbing headaches. 

On August 2, his Nearest of Kin (NOK) were advised – "Regret to report Gunner T.P Bourke ‘sick slightly’ in Malta”. He convalesced for over eleven weeks on Malta, then on October 21 he is transferred to England on the Hospital Ship ‘Regina de Italia’.  He arrived on October 29 and was admitted to newly opened King George Military Hospital for sick and wounded soldiers in Stamford Street, London on November 5. He would spend a London winter and Christmas in that hospital.

On February 1,1916 the Medical Board declares Thomas ‘Unfit for further war service’ and on March 11, Thomas leaves England on the ship the A29 SUEVIC bound for Portland, a port in the western district of Victoria not far from his home town.

Three weeks after departure his ‘NOK’ were advised by telegram dispatched on April 4, that he would be returning to Australia. No doubt this news would have generated much excitement within his immediate family, now living in Bendigo, Central Victoria. This happiness was soon to turn to grief when on April 21 a further telegram is issued to Thomas’s ‘NOK’ from Officer Commanding Troops on board Seuvic that on April 12, 1916 Thomas Patrick Bourke aged 24 had died and was buried at sea. After 4 weeks of sailing, how close the A29 Seuvic was to Australia shores is not known. 

Postscript - Additional information has come to light. Thomas Bourke was living in Bendigo when war was declared in 1914. After his mother (Margarethe) passed away in 1897 in Macathur in the western District, Thomas's father Patrick (Mounted Policeman) was transferred to the town of Axedale in Central Victoria taking the four children and his wife's sister Ellen who was left to care for them.  

Thomas's father married Ellen in 1902 in Axedale and they had a further child bringing the family to five children. Patrick however,became ill and was forced to leave the Police force and the family moved to Bendigo. He became the publican of the Cumberland hotel in 1903 however, within weeks he was dead. Ellen Bourke was left to care for the four children of her deceased sister and husband and her own child. She was forced to surrender the licence of the Cumberland Hotel. 

Two years later Ellen took on the licence of the Waterloo Hotel in the Irish town district of Bridge Street, Bendigo and Thomas grew up in the hotel with his siblings attending the nearby Marist Brothers School. He enlisted in Melbourne on August 19, 1914 listing his occupation as a 'Driver' and his next of Kin was his older brother John Patrick Bourke who was a Police Constable at Russell Street. 

This additional information supports the change of Thomas's home town from Wickliffe (where he was born) to Bendigo where he lived before he departed to enlist.  

Thomas Bourke is remembered on the Bendigo Soldier's Memorial and the Marist Brother's Honour Board located at the new school in Maiden Gully.